IPO concludes testimony in murder trial

The
investigating police officer (IPO) Trawally recently concluded his testimony in
the murder trial involving the State and Ebrima Saidykhan. The accused is
standing trial before Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the High Court in Banjul.

Ebrima
Saidykhan, it was alleged, with malice aforethought, unlawfully caused the
death of one Momodou Jagne by hitting him with a big stick on the 19th of
March, 2015 at SinchuWurry village in the Kombo North District of West Coast
Region.

The witness testified that as the IPO, he
obtained the cautionary and voluntary statements of the accused person; he also
obtained witness statements from the witnesses concerned in the case and
prepared a police report that he attached to the file and forwarded to his
superiors and then to the Attorney General’s Chambers.

IPO
Trawally indicated that the original copy of the accused cautionary statement
was missing but the copy given to him was a photocopy by the prosecuting
counsel, James Mendy.

He
disclosed that Supt. Buba Bah at the Police Headquarters in Banjul certified
the photocopy.

At
this juncture, the presiding judge asked if the said document was accompanied
by an affidavit and the witness replied in the negative.

Justice
Jaiteh disclosed that the document should have been accompanied with an
affidavit and borne the inscription that it is a certified true copy of the
accused person’s cautionary statement.

Meanwhile
the said document was admitted as Exhibit ‘Z’.

Responding
to questions posed by defence counsel, S. Fatty of the National Agency for
Legal Aid, the witness disclosed that the matter started as an assault case but
after one month the victim died.

IPO
Trawally told the court that during the cause of investigations, he realised
that fighting broke out between the accused person and the deceased, noting
that the deceased started the fight as he was the first to hit the accused
person.

The
IPO indicated that during the course of investigations he realised that both
the accused person and the deceased were injured and taken to the hospital for
medical treatment.

The
witness confirmed that when the document was stamped he was not present but
indicated that the photocopied documents were the certified copies of the
original cautionary statement of the accused person.

Hearing
continues on the 12th of November, 2018 for the prosecution to call PW3 and the
presiding judge exhorted the witness as a diligent police officer for having
been attending court since 2015.